Beetroot Chana Masala

Valentine's Day Feast: Dinner

Last time Gabe and I cooked a fancy meal for each other (I think it was an anniversary), I made dinner and he made dessert, so this time we switched... except I couldn't resist doing the first course. Unbeknownst to us, we both choose a pink palette and beets as our main vegetable. Luckily, our dishes were both super delicious and quite different. Here's what we made overall:

Double Beet Ravioli: beetroot pasta with beet green-goat cheese filling in beurre blanc sauce with balsamic reduction, basil oil, and pickled red cabbage (Jenny)
Beet, Goat Cheese, Gruyerre, and Walnut Tart with parsley, served with a grapefruit spinach salad (Gabe)
Rice Pudding with fried bread and plum sauce (Gabe)

Red Wine Poached Pears with chocolate-raspberry sauce, vanilla icecream, and almond praline
Almond-Raspberry Bavarian Cream Cake with amaretto coffee

We were too eager to eat to spend a long time photographing, so forgive the ugly pictures. Trust that everything was delicious and beautiful. I was particular impressed with the simple, organic beauty of the beet tart (though the 10,000 rich, buttery calories per small slice probably affected my judgment).

Beet Ravioli with Goat Cheese Filling

2 medium beets
olive oil
7 egg yolks
1 small log goat cheese
about 1/2 c ricotta
bread crumbs
salt and pepper



Beet, Goat Cheese, and Gruyere Tart

Valentine's Day Feast: Desserts

Red Wine Poached Pears with Chocolate-Raspberry Sauce

Almond-Raspberry Bavarian Cream Cake
Adapted from www.mytartelette.com


1 1 /2 cups almonds
1 cup powdered sugar, unsifted
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons amaretto

2 tablespoons powdered gelatin sprinkled over 1/4 c water
4 cups frozen raspberries
1/2 cup sugar

8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 1/4 cup water
2 cups heavy cream


Preheat the oven to 350. In a food processor, pulse the almonds and the powdered sugar together until finely ground. Sift the flour over the mix. Beat the eggs whites until foamy. Gradually add the sugar while whipping the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold in the almond-flour mixture. Halfway through the process, add the amaretto and continue to fold until smooth. Line two spring-form pans with parchment paper, coast slightly with cooking spray, divide the batter among both pans and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Let cool. Inver the pans onto a cutting board and slowly peel off the parchment paper. Cut each cake in half to make 4 layers.

Line two quarter sheet pans with parchment paper. In a large saucepan set over medium low heat, bring the raspberrries and sugar to a simmer and cook until the berries are reduced to a puree (smash them down with a spoon if necessary) and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the gelatin, stirring until it completely dissoved in the raspberries. Pour over the prepared sheet pans. Let cool to room temperature and then freeze until firm.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very pale. In the meantime, in a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk and the vanilla to a boil. Slowly pour the milk over the yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the cream coats the back of a spoon. Add the softened gelatin and stir until melted completely into the cream. Let cool to room temperature. Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cooled cream base. Use immediately.

Line your spring-form pan with parchment. Place one cake layer in the bottom, then cut out a piece of raspberry filling to the size of the pan and add it, then cover with bavarian cream. Repeat (doesn't matter which you end on). Refrigerate the cake for several hours, until firm.

Home-made Irish Cream

Kumquat Jam

Blueberry Muffins, Chocolate Muffins

It was my turn to bring snacks to human sexuality class today, and sadly sophie gave me my christmas present - penis-shaped cookie cutters - after I had already bought ingredients for muffins. Anyway these turned out really well but not perfect.

The blueberry ones are from Cook's Illustrated. They have a nice texture and an awesome lemon sugar topping (and they're really really pretty!). The only problem with them, in my opinion, was not enough blueberry flavor. In the recipe below, I recommend using a cup more blueberries than the original calls for.

The chocolate ones are from a random recipe online that claimed they were the best ever. This was a lie. They're pretty good, but probably not so delicious that they're worth the calories. Definitely not as moist and super chocolately as the kind you get in good cafes. If you use this recipe, I would recommend adding more melted chocolate and chocolate chips to the batter and maybe slightly more buttermilk.

Cooks Illustrated Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12 overflowing muffins (probably 15 modest muffins)

1/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon

3 cups blueberries (at least 1 cup should be fresh, 2 can be frozen)
1 tsp sugar

1 cup 2 tbs sugar
2 1/2 cups flour (I did 1/2 cup whole-wheat to add texture)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
4 tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat to 425.

Stir together sugar and lemon zest and set aside.

Make blueberry jam out of 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries (if you're using part frozen, use those now.) Put them in a non-stick pan with the tsp sugar and heat them up on medium, stirring constantly. They will magically begin to turn to liquid. Help the process along by popping them against the side of the pot. Cook until they reduce down to about 1/4 of their original mass. Stick the pot in the fridge to cool off.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.

Whisk the 1 1/8 cup sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Whisk in the butter and oil. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla.

Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining 1 1/2 cups blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened - it should be lumpy and have a few small dry spots. Don't overmix.

Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups. Try to make a little dent in the center of each doughpile, then drop in some of the blueberry jam and swirl it around with a chopstick. Sprinkle the lemon sugar on top of the muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden, 17-19 minutes. Enjoy!

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

6 tbs unsalted butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I'd go with more like 6 oz)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1¼ cups buttermilk (maybe add two tablespoons)
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat to 375.

Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together over a double boiler. Remove from heat to cool.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Fold this into the dry ingredients along with the butter-chocolate until just combined (don't break up the lumps). Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter among a prepared muffin tin.

Bake for about 20 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Enjoy!